Looking at that list, I have the same three questions I had when I first saw the rumored cast list a few weeks ago:

1)On what planet is Candice - who was despised by the Yul/Ozzy good guys alliance on "Cook Islands" - considered a "hero"?

2)How, exactly, does Sandra - BFF of "hero" Rupert, and the one who helped set up her team's early dominance in "Pearl Islands" with her amazing shopping skills during the brief trip into the city - wind up on the "villains" team?

3)Why is forgettable Danielle (pictured, above, with Cirie) on the "villains" team? For that matter, why is she on the show at all? Other than to fill the usual Available Bikini Babe quota, that is?

Watch: Amber was inexplicably cast on "Survivor: All-Stars" for a similar reason, and wound up winning the whole thing, in part because everyone else was busy picking off the bigger names. I would not be at all shocked to see Danielle win this one.

My man-crush on Tom Westman was strong enough to keep me from hating him after the psy-ops he pulled on Ian in the "Palau" finale, and it might be enough to get me watching the show again for the first time in many seasons. But I tuned into "Fans vs. Favorites" also because I liked some of the returning alums (Jonathan, Cirie) enough to overcome my boredom with the show, and I mostly spent that season remembering why I didn't care anymore. So I suspect I'll put on the premiere for nostalgia's sake, then let it go again.

And in the meantime, CBS' press tour party on Saturday night is going to feature a reunion of what's supposed to be at least 250 "Survivor" alums, highlighted by the original final four of Richard Hatch, Kelly Wigglesworth, Rudy Boesch and Sue Hawk. I'm betting that neither Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who's both big-time and on another network, nor Stacey Stillman, who sued the show and claimed Mark Burnett rigged her ouster to protect Rudy, will be there, but I imagine lots of others will show up. Though I've lost interest in the series going forward, I still have a lot of nostalgia for the years when I was still watching, so I'll try my best to avoid turning into "The Chris Farley Show" around them. ("Remember when you pretended you weren't Gary Hogeboom? That was awesome!")

I think they placed Sandra in the villains group because she isn't exactly a sweetheart (and she did not win any challenges) and she did a lot of "mean" stuff with gossiping and throwing the fish back in her season. I love Sandra and I actually like that she's with the villain group because I think that's the very challenging group and if she could find way to not get voted off first I'll be more impressed.

Yeah the Danielle casting was meh. Same with James, there's nothing really special with that guy at all, don't get why he is popular.

Too bad Richard Hatch got legal problems, it would been fun if he was part of this after all for me HE IS the ultimate Survivor Villain.

So with you on Penner, Yau and Todd. Those three are brilliant players; it's a crying shame to see them. Especially Penner, who was playing such a great game last time around and who was clearly so shattered to be pulled out for medical reasons.

And Amanda gets the nod over Todd? I agree with whats-her-name, my wife there: Amanda is the A-Rod of Survivor. Great player, chokes in the clutch. She's had her chances.

Bleh. I do love Colby and Tom, but not enough to deal with all of the other people in this cast. I was over Rupert halfway through Pearl Islands, and I'd be happy if most of these people never graced my tv again.

I loved last season's Survivor (Russell was awesome), but count me out for this season. Guess I won't have to tape Community and Parks and Rec this spring.

I'm gonna guess that Probst said it's either me or Fairplay. Jeff can usually fake it around some of the more obnoxious types, but his hatred for Fairplay, while resulting in amusing banter, could take away from the game.

I'm put off by the number a players on for a third time, especially the Heroes with 6 of the 10 being three-peats.

Wouldn't it be great to have "Coconut Phone" Gregg from Season 1 back? He's my hero, although with his "Pick a number between 1 and 10" prank question at the Final Tribal, I'm sure he is a villain to Probst & Burnett.

I, too, had my little heart broken by the non-Penner-tastic nature of the season, but I'm not 100 percent positive that he would go again. Don't get me wrong -- I'm guessing he would, but I don't know for sure. He wasn't whoop-de-doo excited about the quality of the medical care he received on the leg; it's not inconceivable to me he decided he was done. (Though the attitude and the unhappiness about the medical withdrawal makes me suspect he'd have gone if asked.)

The irony is that a lot of the time, my favorites are the kinds of people who find other things to do after being on television and aren't waiting around, like, years later to get the call. For instance, not that they'd have asked him, but Yul works for the FCC in Washington now. Even if they offered it to everybody, there's always a better chance you'll see Parvati again, because frankly, she's not busy.

Without a doubt. His hatred for Fairplay is legen--wait for it!--dary!

I don't know if I can handle this season. I liked Rupert and all, but I don't need to see him again, and I sure as hell don't need Douche--er, Coach--back on my TV, or Boston Knob for that matter. And with the three-peats, it's like they couldn't get the ones they really wanted, so they settled. I wonder who turned them down?

Gawd, I hope Sandra takes out Rob and Coach first. I'd love to see her team up with Russell, too, if she's stuck on the "villains" team.

One thing I noticed is that none of the "fans" from Micronesia got the call. Not that any of them really deserved it, except for maybe Natalie, but the fact that none of them is returning, while 4 of the "favorites" from that season are, almost makes it seem like they didn't actually go from rookies to veterans by being on the show. That they'll always be just "fans". I think, in some ways, that that's a failure of that season's gimmick.

Johnny Fairplay barely lasted an episode of Fans v. Favourites because Probst hated him so much. Suddenly deciding to leave because your girlfriend is pregnant (and knowing this before he left) was the most obvious example of producer manipulation the show has done.

I figured Hatch was still in jail for the filming, which is too bad, because there are non entity villains, and full of hot air villains and I would have loved to see Hatch burst their bubbles. While Sandra is not the most EVIL of villains, she was smart, so I think she will be interesting with the delusional crew she is with.

Based on how things went with the timing of All-Stars (where Rupert was in consecutive seasons), Guatemala (Stephenie and Bobby Jon for their second season in a row) and Fans Vs. Faves (Amanda and James coming back immediately from China), my assumption is that a few episodes of Samoa had aired before everybody left to film Heroes/Villains, so the contestants got a taste of Russell, but not the whole picture.

My God, will we never escape Rupert? And James...again? I *like* James and he's some good eye candy, but unless he's finally learned how to play, I don't see him being that entertaining. And after watching the Ponderosa clips of Coach and Randy and seeing that they were even worse than on the show, I don't really want to see either of those people again. At least they didn't invite Corinne back.

Since we have so many people appearing for the third time, I wish Penner had been brought back/asked back/accepted the invitation/whatever.

And I have no clue who Danielle is.

I bitch, but it's not like I won't be watching. If nothing else, at least I'll get to see more of pretty JT.

I couldn't stand most of them on their seasons but I can't imagine how Russell, Randy, Coach and Tyson are going to deal with each other's *enormous* egos. I think it will be kind of fascinating to watch.

I know it's a minority opinion, but I will always have a soft spot for Boston Rob. He's the only three-peat I'm happy to see.

I wonder if Candice wouldn't come back unless she could be on the Hero team? It is really inexplicable otherwise since she was a spoiled, entitled brat during her season.

I'm somebody who watched the first 3 or 4 seasons and now has gotten back into it for the 3 seasons. So of the cast members I recognize, I like it. As much as I liked JT from Tocantins, I would have rather seen Stephen from Tocantins play again on the hero side. I'm pretty sure they started filming right after Samoa ended filming, so I think Russell's ways will be surprise to these guys.

I wonder if Candice wouldn't come back unless she could be on the Hero team?

If so, they would have laughed at her and invited someone else. She wasn't that memorable.

Someone on Twitter says Probst has defended the casting by saying that when Candice mutinied, she went back to her original tribe. That's just lame rationalization, and another example of the show/Probst blatantly favoring attractive women and/or manly men at the expense of what's actually happening in the game. Probst's Ozzy worship in Cook Islands - and his lack of interest in Yul, who was busy playing one of the best games in Survivor history - was the beginning of the end for me with the show.

The great sportswriter Joe Posnanski writes about how it can be frustrating to care about a sports team (in his case, the Kansas City Royals) who clearly value different things than you do (i.e., the Royal front office's idea of a good player is not shared by Posnanski, or by the baseball standings). That's sort of how I feel about Survivor at this point, and the return of people like James and Amanda, and the assignment of Candice to the Heroes team, reminds me of why I gave up on the show, as much for our conflicting values as for the fact that I'd seen it all before.

I'm sure we all have a few people we'd have wanted to see in this cast, but these are real people with real lives who for one reason or another may not want to or be able to just take a couple months out of their lives again to go on the show.

The Heroes/Villains concept is an interesting one, and its meant to showcase the most popular survivors in the run of the show, but there's a short roster of those kinds of stand outs and you're left with whoever else the show could get to agree to do it and they obviously struggled to fill out the rosters with people that made sense for the concept.

My big problem with the reunion/all star survivors is that it isn't the same game that other seasons play. The best players are hamstrung by their past success and reputations. Everybody's abilities are known. That said, I did really enjoy the Rob M season of All Stars a while back.

I love Survivor and have watched every season except the first one. It has had some very weak seasons which I haven't enjoyed, but have actually found the last few seasons to have been amongst the most enjoyable in the run of the show.

Its funny to me how quickly I forget the people who are on the show. There's a few people in this cast I have virtually no memory of, they just look slightly familiar. And its not always the winner/runner ups that I remember well either.

It seems that if you're a woman on Survivor, all you have to do to be considered a villain is to enjoy verbal sparring. I thought Courtney was hilarious, and given that her main antagonist was that obnoxious poker player, I'm surprised anyone would consider her a villain.

This goes double for Parvati, who played a very underrated and very effective game her second time around. Why is Parvati a villain while her allies Amanda and Cirie are heroes? Because she gets most of the blame for sacking Probst's mancrush, Ozzy? It seems very arbitrary.

I thought one of the obvious villain choices was the other member of the Fans vs. Favorites female alliance, Natalie--the woman who loved to use violent imagery to describe what she wanted to do to the males in her tribe. She was one of the very few women on the show who has really embraced the villain role, like Russell or Tyson.

BTW, this is probably the most identifiable Survivor Reunion cast they've had even without Hatch...but I can't remember Candice or Danielle for the life of me despite having watched their seasons.

I do remember Sandra, and would have thought she was a hero...but shows how well I remember.

When I look back at the number of seasons, the one type of player that doesn't stand out to me is the under the radar female player that gets deep or even wins the game. They all seem to blur together in my mind, probably because I'm a guy.

The only ones I really hate to see on this cast are Jerri and Randy. Yawn.

Why is Parvati a villain while her allies Amanda and Cirie are heroes? Because she gets most of the blame for sacking Probst's mancrush, Ozzy?

Probably because of her entitled, shallow persona. I have no problem with her being considered a villain, although I do have a problem with her being back on my TV :-) I do wish there were more "love-to-hate" villains in that list. Most of those people came across as utterly loathesome, to me.

Who?! Who is this person and why does she own 49% of the show? Is that a joke or actual facts?

For me, I am excited about seeing Stephanie again. I thought she was an incredible player. I also loved Sugar and could not understand why she didn't get a single jury vote. But the editors are good at not quite letting us see what is going on. Apparently they didn't show her irritating everybody else. Still, I liked her.

Plus, Jerri was long ago a bartender at the Circle Bar in Venice, CA. She was the hot one who always ignored everyone and took her time. We never knew her name but then she showed up on Survivor and revealed herself to be a piece of work. Have to watch to root against her.

I thought I was done with this show but I guess not. Well, done, Survivor producers, well done.

I read somewhere that filming for this series started just 20 days after Samoa had wrapped (they used the same location, same camps, same tribal council set), so I don't think any of the other heroes/villains would have been exposed to Russell at that point.

Heroes = players fans like. Candace was pretty well liked in general among Survivor fans for her mutiny. I do not share that high opinion of her but many fans definitely felt that way at the time.

Villians = devious players and /or players fans do not like. Danielle and Sandra definitely fit the latter. We're supposed to root against them and guess what? Its working already.

As a long time Survivor devotee I can also say that I never want to see a season without a few cute girls in bikinis. The show is all about eye candy. Its a kind of fantasy and attractive people are a large part of the appeal.

Lastly, they had to balance things carefully to get a good game. My main concern is that Amanda-Cirie-James will team up yet again and form the core of the Heroes tribe. James is just dumb enough to trust them again. Those 3 could easily bring in Candace too and later unite with Parvati and Danielle based on their relationships in prior seasons. But overall I think the producers struck a good balance with these two tribes. And I LOVE some of the matchups across tribes:

I could do without Coach, and I'm afraid my boy Russell with have a tough time. If the other players only saw his early episodes then they saw him dumping canteens and sabotaging his tribe and not doing much else. That will be tough to overcome. Otherwise, it looks like a great group and I'm really looking forward to this.

In Candance's season, Jeff introduced a small twist and let anyone who wanted to, mutiny and go to the other tribe.The season had started with four tribes, divided by race, if I recall correctly. Candance was in the caucasian tribe, but when the four tribes merged into two, she ended up without his friends in a hostile tribe, only accompanied by Johnathan Penner.When Jeff offered the mutiny, she jumped ship to the other tribe, just because she had a crush on a blond dude. Penner followed her in the mutiny and left his tribe for the other tribe.

can somebody describe this mutiny thing that I've apparently blocked out of my memory?

Players were given the opportunity to switch tribes--just up and leave their old tribe. Candice was already in the majority, but wanted back with her original tribemates Parvati and (name escapes me--big young dullard), so she jumped. A suprised Jonathan then jumped with her, making that tribe the new majority. Considering Yul and his allies, the team Candice abandoned, had already been set up as the season's protagonists, Candice wasn't really thought of as heroic, especially once the tables were turned on her group and the whining of "unfairness" began.

Wasn't Jerri on All-Stars as well? Also, when are the final results read? When Russell was filming this new season did he already know he lost Samoa? If so he must not have made it far on H v.V based on his emotional state during the final results show.

Alan...I'm almost sure in an interview I saw with Probst and or Russell that they sarted filming only a couple days after Samoa, and therefre the competition has no idea who Russell is or what game he played. This H vs V season wrapped in mid September, which is right around when the first episode of Samoa aired.I'm intruiged to see how Russell is presented and how he talks to other cast members asking why he is on the villains side, and how he did in his game. I have a feeling he will be just as entertaining the second time around now that he has some other decent players to work with

I also questioned Sandra when I saw the list. For teh life of me I could not remember who Candice is otherwise i would have questioned that too.

As someone else pointed out, why is Cirie a hero? She played the same game Paravti (and Yay another season of everyone saying her name wrong :-)

I also disagree with Stephenie being a hero. She was sympathetic in her first season when her tribe was whittled down to just her, but in her second, when she was in a power alliance she was an entitled brat.

On the other side of the coin, I don't think Tyson was a villian. He said some outrageous things but clearly he was being funny. At least it seemed that way to me.

Heroes vs Villains finished filming in August, well before any of the past season was ever on tv. None of the other players will know anything initially about Russell. It would be funny if he goes around bragging how he won the past season :-)

Danielle is a villain because she knocked out Probst's mancrush Terry. The guy who won every immunity except the last one, but had no clue about strategy or making allies.

I suspect the real reason Danielle is a villain and Candace is a hero is they didn't women from previous seasons on the same tribe together. So Candace was split from Parvati and Danielle was split from Cirie.

Then I see Tyson and Coach on the same tribe so maybe that's wrong.

I'd love to see Yul, Earl, and some other winners back but I'm sure some of them have actual careers and no need for this nonsense.

I've just finished watching Survivor: The Amazon for the first time, and as a result am disappointed Rob Cesternino isn't coming back. I thought his gameplay was phenomenal, to a point that I now find it disappointing that people think of the other Rob when you're talking about great Survivor players.

I suspect the only reason Candice is considered a "hero" is because that season to a degree cast Penner as the "bad guy", and thus Candice must be a hero.

One thing I noticed is that none of the "fans" from Micronesia got the call. Not that any of them really deserved it, except for maybe Natalie

I'd have loved to have, was his name Erik?, the guy that gave up the immunity necklace, one the show. As I recall he did really well in the game, seemed like a nice guy, and then made one phenomenally stupid decision. I would have loved to see how he would have played this time.

Based on how things went with the timing of All-Stars (where Rupert was in consecutive seasons), Guatemala (Stephenie and Bobby Jon for their second season in a row) and Fans Vs. Faves (Amanda and James coming back immediately from China), my assumption is that a few episodes of Samoa had aired before everybody left to film Heroes/Villains, so the contestants got a taste of Russell, but not the whole picture.

I don't think so. They finished filming before the Samoa tsunami occured, and that was the end of September - which puts the start of filming into August at the latest. Samoa didn't start airing until September 17th.

I think they probably put Sandra on the villains side because she'll be more interesting if she can give her commentary on the more bizarre characters on the villains side (Coach, Russell, Boston Rob, etc.), whereas she might fade into the background on the heroes tribe.

Thanks Adam. All-Stars was the very first season I watched, so my memory of that season, and particularly the early parts of it while I was just trying to figure the game out, are pretty vague. I must rewatch that.

Mixed feelings on this cast. I love Boston Rob, Cirie, Russell, Colby, JT, even Parvati and Tyson sometimes. Don't remember Candice, Danielle, Sandra very well or Courtney at all (think I skipped China).

But I despise many of these players: Coach, Randy, Amanda, and especially Rupert. I can see myself bailing on the season if Coach and Rupert especially start to go the distance. The season's success will really ride on who the final 6-8 turn out to be.

It's starting to feel a little Real World/Road Rules Challenge to me with Amanda, Parvati, James, Jerri and others all seemingly income dependent on this franchise. And I agree with everyone's comments about Jerri: she's to Survivor what Beth or Tonya are to the MTV shows, a nutjob who's getting way too old (and hated) to keep doing this.

Alan, as crowded as Thursdays are, you should do Survivor posts each week even if there's no recap or comments, like you said you'd do for Big Love. It seems a lot of your readers are avid Survivor fans. LOVE your blog, keep up the great work!

I have to say I have watched EVERY Survivor and not missed an episode since it began and I cannot remember either Candice or Danielle, which I don't think bodes well for this "all-star" type group. I'm also very sick of Rupert and James (who self admitted he may have been the dumbest survivor of all time prior to that ice cream scooper kid a couple of seasons ago in Ypsilati MI). Speaking of Michigan (where I live), I know both Michael Skupin (who as far as I know isn't working full time) and Keith Famie (who is producing movies) and would have loved to have seen them on the show again. As for Boston Rob, well, I'm originally from Boston and love the guy (go figure) so I kind of get him and am not as annoyed with him as I am Rupert. My guess is that Russell will be gone first and may cry again at Tribal.